Ant Group, which owns fintech company Alipay has kickstarted the process of an initial public offering (IPO) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Star Market and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, according to the company.
Ant Group has not disclosed details on the IPO size or timing as of yet. However, according to media reports, Ant is seeking a valuation of more than $200 billion in a Hong Kong IPO.
Executive chairman Eric Jing of Ant, said in the press release, “The innovative measures implemented by Shanghai Star market and the Hong Kong stock exchange have opened the doors for global investors to access leading-edge technology companies from the most dynamic economies in the world and for those companies to have greater access to the capital markets.”
Alibaba, the parent company holds a 33 percent stake in Ant Group.
Earlier this year, Alipay, which was previously known as Ant Financial, claimed to earmark 1.3 billion annual active users by the end of March 2020.
The majority of its users came from China, while the rest were brought in by its nine ewallet partners in India, Thailand, South Korea, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan.
In the month of June, Ant’s new boss Hu Xiaoming revealed that the company is aiming to generate 80 percent of total revenues from technology service fees, up from about 50 percent in 2019.
Recently, Alipay partnered with African telecom company Vodacom to launch the app in South Africa. According to the telco, the Alipay app will offer a “marketplace of goods and services tailored to South African customer needs.”